


In a Group Setting

by thelotusflower



Series: slices of cryle [1]
Category: South Park
Genre: !!! Idk what this is, Aged Up, Character Analysis, Character Study, Fluff, M/M, Mutual Pining, Pining, Sort Of, cries in cryle, slices of life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:27:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28483125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thelotusflower/pseuds/thelotusflower
Summary: He began to gravitate towards Kyle during their group hangouts.It was a slow, gradual thing. Instead of sitting next to Clyde, Tweek or Token, he found himself next to Kyle. Most times, he hadn’t even thought about it; it sort of just happened, until he began to make sure he sat next to Kyle.
Relationships: Kyle Broflovski/Craig Tucker
Series: slices of cryle [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2089332
Comments: 11
Kudos: 44





	In a Group Setting

**Author's Note:**

> HELLO!
> 
> I’m literally... in love with them... it’s so bad.............................. /cries in cryle/

He began to gravitate towards Kyle during their group hangouts.

It was a _slow, gradual_ thing. Instead of sitting next to Clyde, Tweek or Token, he found himself next to Kyle. Most times, he hadn’t even thought about it; it sort of just _happened,_ until he began to make _sure_ he sat next to Kyle.

Perhaps he just liked to hear his off-hand comments about things; his off-hand comments that he would only be able to hear while sitting next to the redhead. His comments made him laugh, but were also interesting. At first, it was just listening — catching what he would say — the group conversation going on with some acknowledgement to Kyle’s comment to those who would hear it.

He didn’t say anything back, at least not at _first._

It was actually at the bowling alley when he finally _did_ say something in response. Kyle was making fun of Eric’s form, the _granny slam._ He made fun of him with him, and suddenly, they were talking about something else, then something else, _again._ They had completely forego the group conversation; their side conversation becoming the only thing either of them could pay mind to.

Whenever it was one of their turns, someone had to tell them. The group began to become annoyed with them after several times of having to be reminded. It was kind of embarrassing so they both dwindled away from the side conversation and paid mind to the one of the group; every now and then getting sucked into the vortex that was each other, and being pulled out of it by someone else saying, “ _Craig — your turn,”_ or “ _Kyle, get your ass up there.”_

After that hangout, they began to fall into side-conversations more often. Craig began to be _excited_ at the prospect of seeing Kyle at these group hangouts. It felt more like he was hanging out with Kyle than the group almost. Sure, they were with other people, but he spent most of his time with the redhead, discussing Astrophysics and Einstein. While sometimes Token would entertain him with conversation about these things, it somehow felt different with Kyle.

Everything sort of felt different with Kyle.

He didn’t even mind when Kyle would start rambling about some issue that pissed him off. He actually found himself hanging onto every word and _agreeing_ with him. Everything Kyle was pissed off about made sense to him; he even felt pissed off about it too. As a kid, he ignored these Kyle rants. He thought they were _annoying,_ but he never actually listened to them. He just passed them off as Kyle being a smart ass, and while he totally _was,_ which Craig did not fail to still bring up , he spoke well and effectively. His ramblings didn’t feel like the ramblings of Tweek or Clyde. They felt well put together, almost like an impromptu speech, his thoughts all well paced together and organized. It was easy to follow, maybe easier because he couldn’t remove his gaze from the male.

Maybe he should have figured it out then. When he began to not only _listen_ to Kyle’s speeches, but _enjoy_ them. Maybe he should have realized half the reason he enjoyed them was because it gave him an excuse to stare at the red-head, locating the freckles along his jawline and mesmerizing the way his eyes would narrow whenever he became flustered with anger at whatever it was he was going on about.

Maybe he should have known then, but he still didn’t recognize it.

Maybe he should have known it when after they went to the movies, he spent thirty minutes talking to Kyle about what they had seen; the redhead not only listening to him dissect the film, but voicing his own opinions; every thing he said making sense. Craig was a bit of a movie bluff. He was critical of films, and his friends knew this. They hated him for it, calling him _annoying_ and a _pretentious douche,_ but Craig just liked film. He liked it almost as much as space, and considered it for a career, even. He knew a lot about it. He saw the flaws within films; he saw what made them good. He noticed the meanings and he predicted the outcomes.

He sat by Kyle during these movies. They would whisper to each other about the predicted ending, sometimes agreeing, sometimes disagreeing. In the times of disagreement, Kyle would call him a dumb ass, and Craig would say he is a know-it-all. They would whisper to each other about it the rest of the film, pointing out the points that supported their hypothesizes for the outcome of the films.

Craig wasn’t sure if he enjoyed them agreeing or disagreeing more. He enjoyed ruffling Kyle’s feathers; pestering him and proving him _wrong._ He got so mad about it; so up-in-arms. Whenever the film ended and Craig was _right,_ Kyle would be so up-tight about it, crossing his arms and huffing. It was funny and _cute…_ and he _really_ enjoyed rubbing it in his face that he was right. And it was fine to do because when Craig was wrong, Kyle did the same.

But perhaps his favorite part of going to the movies with Kyle wasn’t the bickering or the mutual solidarity of feelings towards the film, but the feeling that was brought on when Kyle would lean over to whisper to him. His breath would brush against his cheek and their shoulders would press against each other for the moment. It was short and innocent, leaving him wanting more — leaving him with the burning desire to keep their shoulders pressed together.

Sometimes they would both occupy the arm rest; their arms pressed together, the fabric unruly there and mocking Craig.

Maybe he knew when their hands would brush against each other, leaving his skin to burn and mind to melt; the movie seemingly becoming less of his focus; his mind trapped by the male beside him. He would _force_ himself to keep his eyes on the screen instead of Kyle. He was interested in his reactions; how his amber eyes would dance with the screen, how his arched and defined eyebrows would inch up every now and then; his mouth twitching when there was something funny on screen, but not enough to laugh.

He spotted all these things because of his failure to keep his eyes on the screen. He would glance over at Kyle multiple times throughout the film, eyeing him a moment before returning his focus. At one point, when something particularly shocking happened, he turned to see Kyle’s reaction, only to find brown eyes already on him.

Kyle smiled first; a small, toothless smile that made something in his stomach flutter. He presented a smile back and they spent a moment staring, before looking back.

He wasn’t sure what it meant, or what was on Kyle’s mind, but he kept gazing over at him, hoping it would happen again, and it did. Multiple times.

After that, he supposed something within their dynamic changed further. He would purposely brush against Kyle as they walked, he would stare longer at him, feeling less subconscious about it than before. He would smile at him and receive the cutest, most perfect toothless smile back that would make his chest swell with admiration.

Still, they only hung out in a group setting. In school, he shared one class with him, and it was the only time they were ever really _alone,_ even though they were surrounded by other students. In these moments, it was the same. They would chat and sit close together during group-work, their shoes always somehow coming in contact with each other by the end of the period.

It wasn’t until lunch one day that he supposed anyone noticed, or at least brought it up. Kyle had come over to their usual lunch table, asking him a question about their shared class.

“Hey, Craig,” Kyle had greeted. Him. Only him. Even though there were others at his table. “Did you happen to start the study guide for Garrison?” He asked. “I’m having trouble finding number seven.”

A smile ghosted over his face as he asked, his finger tapping against the top of his lunch tray as he held it. Craig gave him a small smile back, increasing the other male’s smile to something that was noticeable to those who didn’t analyze every single detail of his lightly freckled face; something noticeable to his friends. “That one was pretty hard… Garrison is such a dick, he’s always trying to fuck with us, but I think I found it. I’ll check later and text you.”

Kyle let out a breathy chuckle and nodded. “Asshole’s a masochist for sure,” he agreed. “But thanks, Craig,” he smiled before turning away. Craig stared at him until he was far off into the cafeteria; until his friends all began to laugh.

  
The smile left from Kyle turned to a grimace as he glared between his set of friends.

“Dude…” Clyde laughed.

He stared at his friend, narrowing his eyes.

“ _What?”_

“That was just… something. I never thought a conversation about _Garrison_ could hold so much sexual tension,” Clyde chuckled, along with the rest of the group

Craig held his middle finger up to his friends, his face flushing with embarrassment and kept his head down the rest of the period.

After that, it was essentially hard to miss the tension between them. While he figured Kyle felt the same, neither of them knew how to move forward; trapped in this endless dance that neither knew the moves to.

Clyde told him it was _painful_ to watch — called him a pussy.

Being called a pussy by Clyde, and him being _right_ in calling him it, was enough for Craig to make a move.

After school one day, he met up with Kyle by the bus stop. His friends were surrounding him, eyeing him as he greeted Kyle. He ignored them with a flush face as he asked Kyle to sit with him on the bus today.

“Yeah. Sure!” Kyle quipped.

Kyle’s group sniggered behind them, quiet murmurs and whistles coming from their mouths, but they ignored it— ignored the rest of the world as they had many times in group hangouts. It was honestly easy once they got into the swing of conversation.

Once they got on the bus though, the tension rose. They sat in silence; the chattering of other students around them. While it was was normally _very_ easy to talk to Kyle, he felt like his mouth was clamped shut now; his mind scooped out of him and replaced with mud. He couldn’t even _look_ at him. Instead, he stared out the window.

“Did you ask me to sit with you on the bus so we could sit here in awkward silence for ten minutes?”

Craig flushed at this. He could feel the heat forming up his neck as he turned to meet Kyle in the eyes; his pretty amber eyes that always seemed so hard, so narrowed and focused, except right now when they appeared soft, warm, _open._

He cleared his throat, “you aren’t talking to me either, asshole. Conversation goes both ways.”

Kyle laughed; a sound that he got far too attached to for his own good. “I guess. But I figured that you would maybe _try_ to start it, considering you asked me to sit with you.”

Craig glared at him, Kyle’s smile expanding more so upon doing so. This felt normal… felt like they were back in their own world. “Maybe you should stop assuming things, then.”

“I don’t think that was an abnormal thing to assume.”

“When you assume, you make both an ass out of me and you.”

Kyle puffed out a laugh, “you were already an ass.”

“So were you,” Craig retorted.

“I guess it’s safe to assume, then, huh?”

Craig found himself blushing, looking away and grinning. He glared at the floor and the mat that desperately needed to be cleaned at his feet. He stared at Kyle’s brown leather ankle boots and his converse; pressed together without even realizing it. He knocked his knee into the other boy’s, and said, “you’re so obnoxious.”

“You’re the one who asked me to sit on the bus with you, dude.”

“I thought you’d be less obnoxious.”

Craig looked back up to him to catch the red head holding a small smile.

“Well, I _thought_ there would be some meaningful conversation.”

“I guess you thought wrong,” Craig held a smile back, feeling the butterflies flutter and dip in his stomach. He felt they were invading his brain as he just stared at Kyle in silence; toothless smiles being exchanged and eyes soft. After a long _dragged_ out moment, Craig spoke again, “but I know how much you _hate_ being wrong so…”

“So?” Kyle prompted with a raise of the brow, the corner of his lip propping up with interest.

Craig chewed on his bottom lip, staring at the redhead he’s known most of his life. He tried to picture Kyle as the annoying kid he once knew to make it easier, but it didn’t work. He couldn’t do that when the boy beside him was all he ever thought about; when his freckles became the constellations he wanted to memorize; when at night, he laid up thinking about him, of things he said or things he wanted him to say; of how much he _liked_ him. He couldn’t even remember a point behind this feeling; this overwhelming, undoubted, yearning, feeling.

He sucked in a breath. “You know how… like… we always hang out in a group?” Craig asked.

Kyle nodded.

“What if we _didn’t_ do that?”

Kyle lit up at this, the grin reaching his ears. His voice became softer, but completely clear among the chatter of the bus as he said, “is this you asking me on a date?”

“Would you accept?”

“Yeah,” Kyle retorted. “I would accept.”

Craig grinned, grinned so hard it hurt. Grinned so hard, it was embarrassing. He bit down on his lip, reeling it back in. They continued to stare at one another. Craig never wanted to look away. “Cool. Then… What about this Saturday?”

“It’s a date,” Kyle beamed back.

Craig tried to restrain his grin, but it seemed it proved to be a futile point, as he could not stop smiling the whole bus ride home; the whole walk home, not until the point where he waved goodbye to Kyle and his annoying friends, walking into his house.

**Author's Note:**

> BTW the scene at lunch was 100000% inspired by a scene in parks n rec between leslie n ben :))


End file.
